This attractive sandstone building has a richly historic
past. It was erected in 1849 by the Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis,
as his private residence facing the Sydney domain. It was dismantled in
1976 to make way for additions to Parliament House and was re-erected on
its current site by the New South Wales Department of Public Works. The
Villa was officially opened in February 1978 as the headquarters of the
Society of Australian Genealogists, a non-profit membership society
which now houses its Australian library and manuscript collection there.